The Awakening of the SoulIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
ReligionIslamic
The Awakening of the Soul
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800; Philosophy, Arab -- Early works to 1800
Now, when he saw that all things existing were the work of the Creator,
he again considered the power of the same, greatly admiring so rare a
workmanship, such accurate wisdom and profound knowledge.
There appeared to him in the most minute creatures (much more in the
greater) such signs of wisdom and marvels of the work of creation that
his mind was filled with the greatest admiration. Then he became assured
that all these things must proceed from a voluntary Agent of infinite
perfection, even above all perfection, to whom even the weight of an
atom could not be unknown whether in heaven or earth, nor any other
thing whether lesser or greater than it.
Thereupon he considered all the different sorts of animals, and how this
Agent had given to every one of them such a fabric of body and then
taught them what use to make thereof. For if he had not taught them to
use the members he had given them for those employments for which they
were designed, they would not have derived any benefit or advantage
therefrom, but on the contrary would rather have found them a burden.
Hence he knew that he was most bountiful and most gracious of all. And
then, when he perceived among the creatures anything that had beauty,
perfection, power and strength, or whatever other excellency it had, he
concluded that it must necessarily proceed from that voluntary Agent,
from his existence and by his operation.
He knew that the qualities that were in him were much greater, more
perfect, more absolute, more bountiful, more excellent and more lasting;
and there was no comparison between those things that were in him and
those that were found in the animals.
Nor did he cease to go on with his search till he had run through all
the attributes of perfection, and found that they were all in the Agent
and proceeded from him, and that he was worthy of them more than any to
whom they should be ascribed.
Also he searched all the attributes of defects, and saw him free from
them and void of them. And how was it possible for him to be otherwise,
since the notion of imperfection is nothing but mere privation or what
depends upon it.
How should he in any degree partake of privation, who is a most simple
being, the very essence himself, and giving a being to everything that
exists, and besides whom there is no existence. _For He is the
Existence, He is the Absolute, He is the Perfection, He is the Beauty,
He is the Glory, He is the Power, He is the Knowledge, He is He, and all
Things perish beside Him._ (Koran.)
FIFTH SEPTENARY.
_Hayy is completely taken up with the Contemplation of the Superior
Intellectual World._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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